35. -- Columbus. -- This was the first engine company that was
organized in Harlem, then called the village, and was placed in service in
1807. Their first location was n what is now One Hundred and Eighteenth
Street and Lexington Avenue. The only connection then, and for many years
after, between the east and west sides of the upper portion of the city,
was by way of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, or by Chauncey's Lane,
which ran diagonally through the grounds of the present Central Park. In
1812 the engine with which they were doing duty was classed as
"unknown" as to the date of its construction, and as it was the
only engine so classed with the exception of 28, it is safe to conclude
that it must have been one of the earliest engines known. In 1832 Abraham
Vermilyea, butcher, was foreman, and Benson McGown, farmer, assistant. In
1827 the company prepared their first gooseneck engine and afterwards
removed to a little shanty on One Hundred and Twenty-first Street, near
Third Avenue, in the rear of the Harlem Market, and about 1850 moved to
Third Avenue, between One Hundred and Twentieth and One Hundred and
Twenty-first Streets, in a two-story brick house with 43 Hose. In 1861
they again removed their quarters, this time to One Hundred and Nineteenth
Street, between Second and Third Avenues, the location of the present
Engine Company No. 35. Among the old foremen of the company were William
H. Colwell, the lumber merchant; Samuel Cross, William Graham, John H.
Pain, Robert Crawford, and E. V. Graham. In 1850 Mr. Graham resigned the
office of foreman, and John Gillelan was elected foreman in order to allow
him to run for the office of assistant engineer, and on his election to
that office Mr. Graham was again elected foreman of the company, and held
the position until 1853, when the term for which Gillelan was elected an
engineer having expired, he returned to the company, and was again elected
its foreman, serving until 1858, when John Hart was elected. David
Fitzgerald followed Hart as foreman, and he was succeeded by William
daily, who was the last foreman of the company. Samuel L. Liscomb, who was
foreman of this company, and elected assistant engineer in 1842, started
for California with John J. Audubon, the naturalist, and was killed in
crossing the plains in 1849. Garret Dyckman, who was major of the First
Regiment of New York Volunteers in the Mexican war, and colonel of the
First New York Volunteers in the war of the Rebellion, was a member of
this company from 1857 to the breaking out of the last war. The Common
Council, by special committee, awarded to Dyckman the gold snuffbox that
was left by Andrew Jackson to be presented to "that patriot residing
in the city or State from which he was presented, who shall be adjudged,
by his countrymen, or the ladies, to have been the most valiant in defense
of his country and our country's rights." The committee, after
several sessions, at which much testimony was taken, declared in their
report of August 8, 1857, that Garret Dyckman was entitled to the gold
snuffbox for having been the bravest man in the Mexican war. Some
difficulty arose, and Dyckman never received the box, but he was
afterwards elected register of the city.

No. 36. -- Equitable.--It was established on August 13, 1810, and
its location fixed at Spring Street, near Varick Street. The members of
the company who were appointed on august 22 consisted of:

John Targay

carpenter

Greenwich Street

B. C. Stevenson

inspector

Spring Street

Elkannah Mead

carman

Hudson Street

Alexander Allaire

carman

Budd Street.

Daniel Martling

grocer

-

Lotion Quick

carman

Budd Street

Silas Parklow

carpenter

Spring Street

Frederick Glasham

butcher

Spring Street

David Hartshorne

carpenter

Budd Street

John Goodheart

laborer,

Macdougal Street

Duncan Douglass

carpenter

spring Street.

John Lambert,

gentleman.

-

Smith Valentine

grocer

Greenwich Street

Enoch Miller

carpenter

Greenwich Street

John Tompkins

milkman

Sullivan Street

James Clark

milkman

Greenwich Street

Richard Worsburn

carman

Hetty Street

Peter Roodeback,

mason

Spring Street

John Freeman

carpenter

Spring Street.

J. Westervelt

carpenter

Greenwich Street.

John C. Parmerly

carpenter

Thomas Street.

Thomas J. Booles

-

Spring Street.

Elias B. Coy

carpenter

Greenwich Street

Garret Smith

Mason

Greenwich Street

Thomas Rockhill

mason

Spring Street

The company was disbanded on August 5, 1846.

Equitable. -- Harry Howard. -- Equitable. -- No 50 Engine company was
changed on march 10, 1848 to No. 36, and was located at sixty-eighth
Street and Bloomingdale Road.

No. 37. -- Tradesman's. -- The company was organized in 1811, and
was first located in Orchard Street, between Rivington and Stanton
Streets. Second location, between Rivington and Stanton Streets. Third
location Orchard Street, above Delancey, and final home in Delancey Street
near Allen. Was disbanded in 1844. Thos. D. Howe joined the engine in
1820. Within six months he was elected assistant foreman, served two years
in that position, when he was elected assistant foreman, served five
years, when he was appointed assistant engineer, which office he filled
for fifteen years. In 1813, when thirty men were on the roll, the foreman
was Gideon Carstang, Jr., ropemaker, Third Street, near Stanton (resigned
Sept. 18, 1820); assistant foreman, George Howard, ropemaker, Sixth
Street, near Rivington, (resigned May 26, 1817); clerk, Thomas Willett,
merchant, 47 Third Street, (resigned July 27, 1818). In 1814 it was
re-established with twelve men on the roll. The foreman was John R.
Thomas, clerk, of the Cross Roads (resigned April 24, 1815); assistant
foreman, Aaron B. Jackson, grocer at the Cross Roads (resigned December
21, 1818). Among the members in 1823 were:

Aaron Keyer

milkman

Bowery and Bond Streets, foreman

Joseph Brewster

hat manufacturer

Third Avenue, assistant

Simon Van Winkle

innkeeper

Broadway near Twelfth St.

William Ranson & Jonathon H. Ranson

show dealers

Washington Square

Commodore T. Williams, Jr.

-

Fifth Avenue.

Wm. B. Bohn

painter

corner Essex and Worth Streets

Wm. N. Romaine

butcher

287 Houston Street

Robinson Whitlock

brass founder

243 Houston Street

Peter G. Vandrough

cordwainer

47 Suffolk Street

In 1825:

Joseph Brewster

hat make

third Avenue, foreman

Joseph Whaley

milkman

Bowery, assistant

Simon van Winkle

innkeeper

Bowery (resigned May 21, 1827)

Samuel Van Norden

wheelwright

Cross roads and Bowery (resigned April
24,
1815)

The company disbanded in March 1, 1843, and another under the same name
(Tradesman's) was organized on September 26, 1853. It was located in
Fifty-ninth Street hear third Avenue, and went out of service in 1865.

No. 38. -- this company, which is remarkable in not having a name,
was organized in 1811. It was located at the Cross Roads, Bowery; next to
Love Lane (Twenty-first Street), near Bloomingdale Road, and in 1833 at
the junction of Bloomingdale Road and the Boston Post Road. It was
disbanded on July 9, 1838.

Southwark was organized on February 10, 1840. The company was
stationed in Nassau Street near Cedar, and after 1943 at No. 28 Ann
Street. It was disbanded in 1865. At the burning of the Park Theater,
Saturday evening, December 16, 1848, Engine Company No. 38 got first water
on the fire. They soon discovered that the theater was doomed, and that
their efforts could not save it, and, backing down their pipe, they turned
their attention to saving the buildings of the American Bible Society,
which stood in the rear opposite the theater. This they succeeded in
doing. The society presented the company with a costly edition of their
family Bible, on which was inscribed "Presented to Southward Fire
Engine Company No. 38 by the American Bible Society for valuable services
in preserving their premises at the burning of the Park Theater, December
6, 1848." The gift was accompanied by a very flattering letter. When
Southwark Engine Company was disbanded in 1865, Mr. Thomas F. Riley, who
has rolled the engine and had the pipe at the above fire, was presented by
the company with the Bible and the letter.

No. 39. -- Franklin -- Good Intent ("Skiver."). -- Upon the
petition of Gilbert B. Mott and others, Fire engine Company No. 39 was
established on April 6, 1812, among whose officers and men were:

Gilbert B. Mott, foreman.

John M. Read, assistant foreman.

Thomas N. Stanford, secretary.

Men

Jacob Stoutenburgh.

William McKenny.

Thomas W. Hoyt.

Nathaniel Merritt.

John Sutherland.

Elkanah Talbot.

William B. Reed

William Leary.

Peter Aymar.

Jediah Morris.

Uzziah Wenman.

This company used the "Crosby Patent," but it proved to be a
failure, and in January, 1814, it was decided to abandon that system of
construction and revert to the old plan, to conform with which it was
found necessary to alter No. 39. The company was first located at
Partition Street (Fulton), corner of Church, next to Vesey, near Church
Street, in 1834 at the old Bridewell Park, and in 1840 in Doyer Street.
The company was reorganized at St. Paul's Churchyard in Vesey Street, on
March 20, 1820, with twenty-six men, and among the members were:

William Snell

accountant

foreman

John Post

druggist

Greenwich & Cortlandt Streets, assistant foreman

Abraham H. Kipp

merchant

Barclay Street

John Dupont

merchant

Hester Street

Frederick Pentz

merchant

49 Vesey Street

Edward Williams

merchant

Fifth Avenue

Charles Ellet

merchant

26 Howard Street

The company was disbanded on March 1, 1843.

Franklin (second of the name) was organized December 27, 1853,
and was located in Thirty-first Street, near Seventh Avenue, going out of
service in 1865. At an alarm of fire, on January 24, 1864, in thirty-first
Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, the Second District apparatus
were all present, although the bells did not ring. While Hibernia Engine
Company No. 15 were on their way up, the engine ran over William Fanning a
member of Franklin Engine, who was about getting on the rope of 15 Engine.
He was removed to Eighth Avenue and Thirty-first Street, where he died in
forty-five minutes.